William-James88

I feel we have more than enough "is this really a 9.8?" threads on this site and this specific thread/topic is too important to turn it into another one of them. The big problem here isn't just that it doesn't look like a 9.8 but that 2 different books got the same cert number, making this a scam and trying to get away with it by using CGC and the blind faith people have for their slabbed books.

Gonna disagree on this one simply because of how widespread and varied, in terms of book value, that was over time. CGC messing up at times feels more probable than an organized comic crime ring that did this on random books sold from a multitude of stores. It certainly doesn't explain this 9.8 with spine ticks, for instance, which couldn't have been scammed the same way due to it being a signature series. Plus there's the idea that 9.8 means mint from the printing press, so it can include bindery tears and colour breaks, as people discuss in one of the many "is this a 9.8?" threads on the site. To be clear, I am not saying the spidey 252 that sparked this is legit, it isn't. I just do not think we are looking at the same scam happening all the time everywhere. I feel that absolves CGC too much.

Why would this be picked up as a news story when worse issues haven't? This is just the latest oopsie from a grading company which made thousands of oopsies, just like any other grading company has.

CGC missing that something is missing (or mislabelling something) is a common error among people who opened up their purchased slabbed books. They have never been 100% competent. If you didn't worry about it before, no use worrying about it now. Just don't open your purchased slabs.

Already happened, and CGC's business has only grown since

This has literally been an issue with slabbed books since the beginning. If the uncertainty of your pin ups not being there didn't stop you from buying a slabbed book before, I don't see why it would stop you now.

I get wanting to write the full price for insurance purposes but I hope you also state it's a "used" book though as the taxes on used items is much less since the items were originally taxed when purchased new .

It's too bad that the customs form does not have a gift option. The ones shipping from Canada do. That would help out because these are all indeed gifts.

I had the same question a few years back when I did this, but with about a third to half of the entries being ok with shipping to my area (canada), then it works out. But if you are in the UK or in Asia, and picked in the bottom half, then it could become an issue. But so far people have always come through, even if it's a gift card or pay pal card.

Looks like I'm right down the middle, we'll see what happens. Also very generous of the members that such awesome prizes ship to my country (also, someone is donating an Al Bellman, holy cow!)

The problem with a class action lawsuit is that you have to prove that the plaintiffs sufferred a loss. And as far as I know, CGC always comes through in making people whole monetarily. I had a terrible experience with CGC where they switched my book with a lower grade one. I was compensated by receiving more than the estimated market value of my original book and could now simply obtain a slab of the book I sent if I chose to do so. As a collector who has a personal attachment to his books, I still simply wanted my book back, and I will not send in more books unless when I choose to part from them (and have the auction house do that for me). But in terms of a legal case, I was made whole financially speaking, I experienced no financial loss. And any anguish I had didn't result in any therapy bills. And as for the book in question, if the person doesn't feel it's a 9.8, and can return it to get their money back, then they are not at a loss either. As for the comments on it being a credible company, all I meant to say is that due to ample past examples, and the fact that our comics are encapsulated, none of us can be 100% certain that what we own is truly as is stated when purchasing a slabbed comic(ie: unrestored, pinups included, all pages included, no married pages, ect) . BUT if we keep it slabbed, then we pass that uncertainty over to the next buyer when that day comes. If the general consensus is that CGC is the best in the business (which is the current case), then my individual beliefs on it not being credible don't really matter. And nothing stops one from partaking in the slab market without believing in it. My initial comments were simply based on the pearl clutching I was seeing here as if we haven't had plenty of past issues. There were some pretty crazy hyperboles being thrown around.

I'm pretty sure that as far as they are concerned, this is just a comic in a 9.8 holder that doesn't look like a 9.8. However scammy way that may have happened, that's the end result. And that happens all the time and they never respond to that at a public level. It's basically buyer beware.

@The Sledderthere's your number 4

no

But they do just keep screwing up and have always been that way as I showed in my post. But it hasnt mattered so far. I don't see how this is what breaks the camel's back rather than is just being same old same old

This is same old same old though and a statement similar to yours gets posted after similar issues like: - When CGC gave blue labels to purple books through this custom label loophole - When they ruined a Golden Age Cap book by detaching the cover while reslabbing it for a pedigree label and still have it a higher grade than originally slabbed - When they missed a page and still gave the book a blue label - and for the myriad of times they lacked any common sense in grading (here's a fun one) All these examples are signs that you never know if you can trust the slab you buy.. ever. CGC was not a credible company before, they aren't one today. They are simply the supposed "best game in town" by people investing in comics and until that changes, people still send a ton to them. So nothing will happen and the guys who pointed this out are in no lesser trouble than any of us for pointing out stuff like I just mentionned.

The Dylan stuff happened before and this isn't him. I was just noticing that the scams we see tend to feature special labels. Like there's an exploit there. Might just be a coincidence though with the only exploit being that wanting a specialized label that didn't exist before is an easy excuse to try to get away with switching labels. Looks less fishy to CGC than just wanting a reslab. This is a pretty good scam though. Buy a book, remove the certificate, stick it onto a lower grade book and ask for a reslab. And send the other book seperately another time raw. You get two high grade books in return. This whole Mark Jeweler thing takes me for a loop though. The initial slab was sold off, so how did that person know that it was mislabeled and should say it has an insert? Shenanigans aside, this whole thing brings up a big fundamental issue I have with buying these kinds of slabs. You are buying a comic that is rare for having an insert and yet you can never truly validate for yourself if the insert is there. It's like Shrodinger's comic.

Yup, that was one hell of a scam

Hi, several lots don't have a specification on shipping. I was burned on this 2 years ago when we had this raffle. The one I picked backed down on shipping to me and gave me cash instead. That defeated the whole purpose of me picking them. So before more fill out the form, can the people participating please make sure they are clear on where they are willing to ship? Also, some people use the word "overseas " and its not clear either since A) we don't know where you are shipping from B) does that mean neighboring countries are ok for shipping to?

I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but these scams tend to feature the use of custom/specialized labels. We saw something like that previously with purple labels changing to blue by using this recorder tactic.

I didn't realize we were talking about slabs until I read the first post, was gonna post a pic of my wife.

Here's what will be sent to you (if you are in the US or Canada) if you pick my lot.

I am not the right person to answer that question since I don't make it a habit to submit books. I only do it as part of signature series or if I think it will get a high grade, or if I want to solidify a pedigree. Because I just don't have the space for that many slabs in my home, it's crazy how quickly a long/short box fills. And I personally preffer the look of my books in mylars. So while I do own several slabs, the majority are books I bought and not stuff I sent in. And funny enough, some of the slabbed books I bought I removed from their slabs. But none of that is meant to judge in any way, it's just to explain where I'm coming from with slabbing. And I was just curious about your pick. Turns out you and I have a lot of the same books. I am really curious to see if those two yellow costume Daredevil books you sent ever go up in value. I know I love them and think they are underappreciated.

Ah, thanks I get it now. Ok, technically that does not count as a detached cover defect, so while I'm not sure how I would personally grade it, the grade you got is not out of the realm of possibility. And yeah, they don't write every defect in the notes. So I'd say your cleared and all is OK. Still curious about why you picked this specific book to get graded, does it have a special meaning for you?